Kayleigh McEnany Uses Jedi Mind Trick to Distract from Trump Coverage (2024)

Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany took an obtuse approach Wednesday to covering Donald Trump’s win in the New Hampshire primary — and the lies he told in his victory speech — focusing instead on how other news networks covered the comments.

McEnany, in the opening segment of her “Outnumbered” news talk show, attempted to shame MSNBC and CNN for not similarly covering President Joe Biden’s speeches.

“The media, they had a rather interesting decision to double down on not showing President Trump’s victory speech in full,” McEnany said before greeting her viewers and introducing fellow “Outnumbered” panelists Emily Compagno and Harris Faulkner. They were also joined by guests: former Michigan gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon and Democratic campaign strategist Kevin Walling.

Trump’s former press secretary then opened the segment in earnest with a brief clip of Trump’s blustering speech Tuesday night after he was declared the winner of the New Hampshire primary over Nikki Haley.

“We are going to win this,” Trump opined. “We have no choice. If we don’t win, I think our country is finished. I do. I believe our country is finished. We have an opportunity to do something so amazing.”

After promptly cutting away before he could say something even more ludicrous, McEnany pointed out MSNBC’s choice to do likewise Tuesday night, when it featured star anchor Rachel Maddow commenting on Trump’s speech in real-time.

“So this is part of the issue here,” a laughing Maddow said as Fox News rolled video of MSNBC’s coverage. “What Trump said, that he won New Hampshire not only in previous primaries but that he won New Hampshire in the general election, is not true. So the former president has opened his remarks tonight by once again proclaiming falsehoods. … This is what makes it hard to take his pronouncements live. We’ll try again, though.”

McEnany quickly shifted to CNN’s coverage, noting that host Jake Tapper also cut Trump’s comments short.

“He brought in a fact-checker and joked about not running the speech in its entirety,” a dour-faced McEnany said. She then cut to a clip of CNN coverage, in which Tapper said their network’s fact-checker might have had “more to do” had they run more of the speech.

And that was the extent of the Trump speech coverage for “Outnumbered” before they turned to video of unrelated comments from Biden. In the clips, he speaks about his involvement in the Black church community, being arrested in South Africa, his teaching tenure at the University of Pennsylvania and his connection with the Puerto Rican community growing up. The show implied that his statements were not on the level but did not explain what was incorrect about them.

“Outnumbered” then cut to a wide studio shot of the show’s panel, with McEnany gesturing toward a camera she presumably thought was hot. Her movements were not unlike gestures used in “Star Wars” films for Jedis performing the Jedi mind trick.

“So we had our Brain Room check this out,” McEnany said. “And we could not find a live instance — yes, Daniel Dale has fact-checked Democrats — but we could not find an instance where they just cut off Biden in the middle of a speech and said, ‘Fact check right here, right now. Let’s not listen to him.’”

Not surprisingly, cohost Faulkner had more to say about the credibility of other Biden comments with neither McEnany nor Faulker considering the fact that the approaches MSNBC and CNN take are tailored around Trump’s history of compulsive lying.

The “Outnumbered” redirect came after Trump criticized McEnany’s on-air comments from Tuesday night, in which she said the result of the New Hampshire primary was a “fairly good night” for Biden.

“I don’t need any advice from RINO Kayleigh McEnany on Fox,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform, referencing the conservative slam of calling someone a “Republican In Name Only.” “Just had a GIANT VICTORY over a badly failing candidate, ‘Birdbrain,’ and she’s telling me what I can do better. Save your advice for Nikki!”

Watch the rest of Wednesday’s Fox News segment via YouTube at the top of this post.